This photo shows the three-part Saturn V/Apollo and its mobile launcher moving from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A.

Photo 2: Saturn V lifting off, July 16, 1969.

(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

This photo shows the Saturn V rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. The force of the launch shook the ground for many miles around Cape Canaveral.

Questions for Photos 1 and 2

1. Refer back to Map 2 and trace the route of the Saturn V/Apollo from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Complex 39A.

2. How is the crawler-transporter moving? It took six hours to complete the six-mile journey to the launch site. Why do you think it moved so slowly?

3. Although the roadway slopes slightly uphill, the rocket is being maintained in a vertical position. How and why do you think this was done?

4. Does seeing the people standing on the roadway in Photo 1 give you a better sense of the size of the height of the entire assembly than the measurement in Reading 2? Discuss.

5. How do you think that actually attending a launch like the one shown in Photo 2 would differ from seeing a photograph or a television image of it?

* The images on this screen have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Photo 1 and Photo 2, but be aware that each file will take as much as 30 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.